Wes Anderson Attracts Killer Cast For 'Moon Rise Kingdom'

EXCLUSIVE: When Wes Anderson is ready to make a movie, talent comes running. I’m told that Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton are all in talks to star in Moon Rise Kingdom, a script that Anderson wrote with Roman Coppola and which Anderson will direct late next spring. Scott Rudin is producing with Anderson. Indian Paintbrush, the financier/production company bankrolled by billionaire Steven Rales, is in early conversations to fund the film and come aboard as producer. Rales, who recently installed Rudin’s longtime president Mark Roybal to run the company and step up its output of auteur-driven prestige films, has a strong relationship with Anderson. Rales was involved as a producer in Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox as well as The Darjeeling Limited. Both films were produced by Rudin.

Moon Rise Kingdom is set in the 60s. Two young adults fall in love and run away. Leaders in their New England town are sticking the idea that they’ve disappeared and go in search of them. Norton will play a scout leader who brings his charges on a search. Willis is in talks to play the town sheriff who’s also looking, and who is having an affair with the missing girl’s mother, the role McDormand is in talks to play. Murray, a regular in Anderson films, will play the girl’s father, who has his own issues.